The Stone Tape (BBC, 1972) - 9th December, 2024 (101 Films)

[Deutschmann]

Does anybody know if there will be a US release of this one, like there was with Ghostwatch?

[LigandFields]

Originally Posted by pferreira

Why do I get the feeling when I put in the blu-ray it's going to start screaming and then my screams will end up being recorded on top?

It's in the computer!!

[Eidolon]

Did anyone else get this? I have the edition with the cassette, and it's really nice. Some of the tracks feature audio samples from the programme.

https://hiddenbritain.bandcamp.com/a...ectronic-means

[bigshot]

Originally Posted by darrellmaclaine

Comet tails, they are part of the original production. Insanely difficult to remove and why would you want to?

It's called vidicon burn. The sensor in the camera would burn when exposed to bright light. In extreme cases, the spots would linger appearing on everything the tube captured. Some of it would dissipate over time, and sometimes they would burn in light evenly across the whole vidicon tube to cancel it- neither of which was possible while shooting.

[SamuelTurn]

Gonna pre-order it from Diabolik. I’d love it if someone, the BBC or the BFI or 101 or someone could ger ahold of Kneale’s “The Year of the Sex Olympics” to restore the surviving telerecording, perform color recovery (I can SEE the chroma-dot patterns in certain places), and VidFIRE it as well.

[oddbox83]

From memory, YOTSO doesn't contain the dots in enough quality for colour recovery. Which is a massive shame, but it is what it is.

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by SamuelTurn

Gonna pre-order it from Diabolik. I’d love it if someone, the BBC or the BFI or 101 or someone could ger ahold of Kneale’s “The Year of the Sex Olympics” to restore the surviving telerecording, perform color recovery (I can SEE the chroma-dot patterns in certain places), and VidFIRE it as well.

This reminds me that I still need to get the BFI release of this.

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

Did anyone else get this? I have the edition with the cassette, and it's really nice. Some of the tracks feature audio samples from the programme.

https://hiddenbritain.bandcamp.com/a...ectronic-means

Nope! I have this excellent release which contains the original soundtrack & despite the title there are actually 6 albums in it.

[SamuelTurn]

Also just confirming, The Stone Tape survives in its broadcast master tape, yes?

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by SamuelTurn

Also just confirming, The Stone Tape survives in its broadcast master tape, yes?

As a digital preservation master, yes.

I believe the original 2" tape was donated to the BFI should it ever need to be replayed.

[outland_1981]

Definitely a great ghost story for Christmas with a very different depiction of a haunting. A curious upgrade to Blu ray, but I'm happy to support this release nevertheless.

[Martyghost]

Originally Posted by outland_1981

A curious upgrade to Blu ray, but I'm happy to support this release nevertheless.

I know what you mean. I don't recall much film in this, if any

[LigandFields]

Originally Posted by Martyghost

I know what you mean. I don't recall much film in this, if any

Well, I would like to think that in the year 2024, we're not still trying to explain to people that the compression codecs on BluRay are significantly less awful than the compression codec on DVD?

Bottom line:
whilst there's zero improvement in raw picture resolution when you put 625-line PAL video on Bluray compared to DVD,
there is a modest improvement in picture quality (reduction in compression artefacts).

And as the existing DVD releases were pretty bog standard transfers,
there's also scope to apply PAL transform decoding, sensitively regrade a bit, and clean up the audio.

Plus The Stone Tape is one of the best television programmes ever made, of course, so there is that

EDIT: just to be clear - no, I don't believe there is *any* film on The Stone Tape, it was all shot on video in the BBC televsion studios (and also using Outside Broadcast video cameras for the few exterior shots).
It would have been more usual for the Beeb to use 16mm film for location exteriors in those days, and the OB cameras were quite a novelty (and usually used for football matches!) so we might guess this was a deliberate artistic choice by the production team to avoid the Monty Python 'This House is Surrounded by Film' piebald aesthetic, and indeed something they probably had to get special dispensation for.
Another driver for sticking to video in the studios would be that it made use of blue screen ('CSO') for a lot of the key visual effects shots involving ghosts, and CSO worked much better when all the elements were video: if you tried to composit on top of a film background, you'd usually get loads of film weave and jitter, which looked horribly wobbly even to a naive audience watching on a rickety 1970s television set.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by Big-D

I hope the Nigel Kneale and Kim Newman commentary is ported over from the dvd

If they've remastered it in some way, I hope they've reduced or digitally erased some of the shots of when the camera pans from a bright object, it leaves a trail behind (like a lens flare).

I love bonus material by Kim Newman, he is always a pleasure to listen to and interesting/entertaining.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

I love bonus material by Kim Newman, he is always a pleasure to listen to and interesting/entertaining.

I spend more time checking out the books and CDs on his shelves

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by drush9999

I spend more time checking out the books and CDs on his shelves

A good number of which (the books) are his own.

The last interview I saw, can't remember what it was for now, he had three copies of one of his own books on the shelves behind him...

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by drush9999

I spend more time checking out the books and CDs on his shelves

That Vampyros Lesbos soundtrack CD has been there for about 15 years lol

[puffketeer]

I've looked at the letterboxd reviews for this, since I find that site to be a better barometer of what people online think about movies nowadays, and I've seen a few people there take umbrage with its portrayal of casual racism (the anti-japan stuff) & misogyny (how jane asher's character is treated).

I have a few points to make regarding that.

firstly, I really wish more people online would understand that having deliberately unlikeable characters in your story is not a flaw. if you just want people to root for, go watch football.
secondly, you're watching something produced over 50 years ago, when the standards of what was acceptable in mainstream entertainment were different. people, understandably so if you ask me, bristle at portrayals of discrimination a lot more now than they would have then.
thirdly, I think it's made pretty clear by the ending where the story's sympathies lie.

ultimately, when you watch a movie older than yourself through a modern lens, you're not going to see it the same way people at the time did, but I really wish more people had the media literacy to understand that portraying racism & misogyny in fiction is not even remotely the same thing as endorsing it

[Larsen B]

Originally Posted by puffketeer

firstly, I really wish more people online would understand that having deliberately unlikeable characters in your story is not a flaw. if you just want people to root for, go watch football.

Funny thing about this is a lot of football players (either side of the Atlantic) are thoroughly unlikeable anyway but just play for your team!

[LigandFields]

My copy arrived! It has 3 nice/scary post cards to stick on your wall. Haven't had a chance to watch the remaster yet but I'm sure I'll have something passremarkable to say about it when I do